Guide structure for bottle stoppering apparatus



April 26, 1960 J. c. HENDEl QSON ETAL 2,934,238

GUIDE STRUCTURE FOR BOTTLE STOFPERING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 25. 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 L II A 1 Wll WM A "In ii" :9

INVENTORS. JACK C. HENDERSON GUlLlO L. PAR

BY I v M EY April 26, 1960 J. c. HENDERSON ET AL 2,934,238

GUIDE STRUCTURE FOR BOTTLE STOFPERING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 25, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 v INVENTORS. I09 JACK C. HENDERSON- I06 GUILIO L. PAR I05 By f/g. 4 TGRN'EY April 26, 1960 J. c. HENDERSON EI'AL 2,934,238

GUIDE STRUCTURE FOR BOTTLE STOFPERING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 25, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS. JACK C. HENDERSON GUILIO L. FARO BY M ATTOR Y United States Patent 6 Hce GUIDE STRUCTURE FOR BOTTLE STOPPERING APPARATUS Jack C. Henderson, New York, N.Y., and Guilio L.

Parodi, Demarest, NJ assignors to The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application October 25, 1955, Serial No. 542,652

Claims. (Cl. 221-36) This invention relates to the stopper holding portion of a bottle stoppering machine, and particularly relates to a stopper holding portion especially adapted for holding resilient stoppers preparatory to the driving of said stoppers by a ram through said holding portion and into a bottle.

In the type of bottle stoppering machine first disclosed and claimed in the application of Leonard T. Cookson, Serial No. 263,439, now Patent No. 2,797,541, dated July 2, 1957, the particular structure therein illustrated was designed for use with stoppers having flanges of substantial size. In the further development of the general type of machine therein shown, it has become desirable to utilize it for the stoppering of bottles with resilient stoppers which are only a little wider at their upper ends than at their lower ends. Such stoppers may in some instances be taperedstoppers with either no flanges or with only narrow flanges or they may be substantially cylindrical stoppers, with or without rounded or beveled lower ends, and provided with narrow, such as inch, flanges. Such stoppers, made of both rubber and polyethylene, as well as other resilient materials, are in common use.

Accordingly, a principal object of the invention is to provide a stopper feeding device and a device for holding said stoppers in position for ramming into a bottle adaptable for use with the general type of machine shown in the application of Leonard T. Cookson, Serial No. 263,439, and more particularly for use with the machine shown in our earlier application, Serial No. 451,123, now Patent No. 2,826,885, dated March 18, 1958, and adapted for handling of stoppers of resilient material, such as polyethylene, which stoppers may be of a variety of shapes including particularly those stoppers which are only slightly larger at their upper ends than at their lower ends, as where said stoppers have either narrow flanges or are tapered and have no flanges.

A further object of the invention is to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which will be applicable with only minor, if any, modification to stoppers of many specific kinds made of a resiliently compressible material and having a widened portion, as a flange, somewhere between their ends.

A further object of the invention has been to provide such a device which will handle said stoppers Without changing the functioning of the basic machine with which the stopper feeding and holding mechanism is to be used.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device, as aforesaid, which will be simple to construct and satisfactory in operation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device, as aforesaid, which can be readily interchanged on a given machine with similar devices for feeding, and holding stoppers of different sizes and specific shapes or stoppers with wide flanges.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device, as" aforesaid, which will accurately hold the stoppers of the types described above in position for insertion into a Patented Apr. 26, 1960 bottle and will do so without sacrificing the reliability and speed of operation obtained in the machines mentioned in the above named applications.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with devices of this general type upon a reading of the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 represents a front elevation view of a typical machine with which the present invention is adapted to be used.

Figure 2 shows a side elevation view of the machine shown in Figure 1 as seen from the left side thereof.

Figure 3 is a side elevation view of the machine shown in Figure 1 taken from the right side thereof.

Figure 4 is an elevation view of the portion of said machine constituting the present invention.

Figure 5 is a sectional view taken on the line V-V of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a sectional view taken on the line VI-VI of Figure 5 and rotated 135 clockwise.

Figure 7 is a sectional View taken on the line VII VII of Figure 5 and rotated 45 clockwise.

Figure 8 is an enlarged, sectional view of the stopper holder unit taken on the line VIIIVIII of Figure 7 and showing a stopper in place ready for insertion into a container.

Figure 8a is a further enlarged View of the portion of Figure 8 lying Within the circle A.

Figure 9 is an oblique, exploded view of the holding device of the invention.

In general In general, the present invention comprises a chute supporting the stoppers by their widened portions for delivery from a hopper to a ramming position. When the stoppers reach the ramming position they are received by a holding device. Said holding device has an internally tapered portion engaging the widened portions of said stoppers. The ram then drives the resilient stoppers past the constriction caused by the internally tapered holding portion and into the bottle.

While bottles are referred to herein as the recipients of the stoppers handled by'the machine, it will be recognized that this is-illustrative only and that any kind of container to which resiliently compressible stoppers may be applied can be stoppered by the equipment herein described.

Detailed description For illustrative purposes, the device of the present invention is shown in association with a stoppering machine of the type illustrated and claimed in our application entitled Bottle Stoppering Machine With Vibratory and Gravity Feed, Serial No. 451,123, filed August 20, 1954. It will be apparent that the particular mechanism of the present invention can be used with a variety of other specific designs of bottle stoppering machines, providing only that they employ the same basic principles of chute feed and ram insertion as is utilized in the device of said application. Accordingly, the machine of said application will be briefly described for purposes of better illustrating the present invention, but it is to be understood that this is for illustrative purposes only and is not limiting. Further, inasmuch as said machine is illustrated and described in detail in said application, Serial No. 451,123, it is necessary to refer to it here only briefly.

The machine includes a series of vertical posts 2, 3, 4 and 5 (Figures 1 and 3) secured at their lower ends to, and supported by, the horizontal base 1. The upper ends of posts 2, 3 and 5 support a vibratory feed unit 6, which is comprised of a power member 7 supporting a hopper 8. The power member 7 contains means, such 3 as springs and vibratory means acting thereagainst, as described in Patents Nos. 2,305,943, 2,187,717, 2,464,- 216 and 2,666,109 for the purpose of applying an angularly effective vibration against said hopper by which said hopper simultaneously reciprocates in a vertical direction and oscillates in a circumferential direction.

A control unit 9 is also positioned on the base, said control unit containing the cams, switches and other power or power controlling mechanism for the machine.

A vertical ram unit 12 (Figure 1) is positioned on the post 4 adjacent the power member 7 and extends therebelow toward the base. A conveyor 11 extends from the hopper 8 to a position adjacent to the lower end of the ram unit. The conveyor 11 includes a chute 27 which communicates with the outer end 26 of the ramp portion 24, which ramp portion communicates with a spiral ramp on the inner surface of hopper 8. Said chute curves outwardly and downwardly from said ramp portion 24 into a substantially vertical midsection portion and then. curves inwardly to provide a substantially horizontal lower section connected to the stopper holding portion 105 (Figures 1 and 4) which is positioned adjacent to the lower end of the ram assembly 12. The chute may be supported in operative position by any convenient means which are not directly connected to components vibrating due to power member 7 such as the bracket 30, which will in turn be mounted upon any non-vibrating structure, such as the pressure cylinder 44 of the ram unit 12.

The ram unit 12 includes a fluid pressure operated cylinder 44 and a ram 38 actuated by said cylinder. The ram unit is mounted on a horizontal platform 46 which in turn is supported on the post 4 located approximately between the posts 3 and 5. A nut 47 secures the ram unit to the platform 46. A pair of hanger rods 49 and 51 are secured to, and extend downwardly from, the platform 46 and support a stopper guide 106 at their lower ends and extending therebetween.

The bottle holding and ram actuating device is indicated generally at 81. The device 81 comprises a platform 82 (Figure 3) having a switch housing 83 mounted on the rearward end thereof. A reciprocably mounted arm 84 extends forwardly from the switch housing 83 and supports the guide member 36. Said guide member has an upper guide 87 for engaging the neck of the bottle and a lower guide 88 for engaging the body of the bottle. The platform 82 is preferably supported near its forward end on a screw 89 and said screw 89 is secured in a vertically adjustable position by the adjustment nut 91 upon the machine base 1.

Turning now to the mechanism by which the stopper is held in position for insertion into a bottle, hereinafter for convenience in reference called the bridge structure, attention is directed to Figures 4 to 9, inclusive. The chute 27 has a slot 101 in the bottom thereof which in the present embodiment is defined on each side by the flanges, or rails, 102. and 103. These flanges, as better shown in Figure 6, engage the flanges of the stopper S (Figure 7) and support it for sliding movement along the chute 27.

The holding, or bridge, portion 105 of the device is comprised of three major parts, namely: the ram guide 104 (Figures 7 and 9), the stopper guide 106 and the stopper support 107.

The stopper guide 106 (Figure 9) comprises a body member 110 having a U-shaped opening 108 therein and supporting ears 109 and 111 extending in opposite directions therefrom. The supporting ears 109 and 1-11 have openings 112 and 113, respectively, therein for fastening said body member onto the supporting posts 49 and 51 (Figure 4). The U-shaped opening includes a shoulder 114 throughout its entire extent for receiv ing and supporting the tongue 116 of the chute 27. Said tongue 116 has an opening 117 therethrough which is of only slightly larger diameter than, and is concentric .4 with, the rounded portion 108a (Figure 9.) of the opening 108.

The ram guide 104 comprises a sleeve 118 through which the ram 38 extends in a close sliding relationship. Said sleeve 118 has a radially extending flange 119 intermediate its ends. The lower part 118a of said sleeve extends into the opening 117 of the chute tongue 116 (Figure 8) for a distance not greater than the thickness of said tongue, and the flange 119 lies on top of both said chute tongue 116 and said stopper guide 106.

The stopper support 107 (Figure 9) comprises a flange 121 which is arranged to be secured to the planar bottom surface of the stopper guide 106. A downwardly extending annular supporting portion 122 is provided with a central passageway 123 concentric with the ram 30. Said central passageway has a downwardly and inwardly tapered portion 123a (Figure Eat) at its upper end on which a stopper rests prior to being rammed into position in the bottle and a cylindrical portion 123]). An opening 124 is provided at one side of the holding member 107 to permit the downwardly hanging stopper shanks to pass the portion 122 and enter into position: for being inserted into the bottle. The stopper guide 106 has an internal diameter D1 in the portion. below shoulder 114 (above the tapered edge 123a) only a little larger than the diameter of the enlarged upper end of the stopper, such that the upper ends of the stoppers will be closely guided thereby but will have a,

free sliding relationship therewith. Thus, as soon as a stopper leaves the flanges 102 and 103 of chute 27 it is supported solely by the, tapered portion 123a but will still slide freely to a point determined by the rounded end of said U-shaped opening and which point is concentric with the ram 38.

The diameter D2 of the cylindrical portion 123b of the central passageway 123, i.e., the part below the tapered portion 123a, is sufliciently smaller than the upper end of the stopper that said stopper is supported firmly thereby, but it is large enough in view of the size of the stopper and in view of the resiliency of the material of which the stopper is made that said stopper may be driven therethrough without either an unreasonable expenditure of power or without damage being done to the stopper.

Operation Referring now to the operation of the device, stop-i pers are fed into the chute 27 in the same manner as described in connection with our application entitled Bot-. tle Stoppering Machine with Vibratory and Gravity Feed, Serial No. 451,123. Thus, a quantity of stoppers is placed within the hopper 8 and operation of the machine is commenced by actuating the proper controls.

' A vibratory oscillation of the hopper 8 is caused by the power member 7 and the stoppers are thereby moved up the ramp inside the bowl. Properly oriented articles enter into and pass through the ramp portion 24 and then enter the upper end of the conveyor and move by gravity downwardly to the stopper holding portion 105.

The bottle supporting platform 82 is vertically adjusted so that the bottle B (Figures 6 and 7), when placed in the stoppering station thereon will clear the lower end, or shank, of a stopper disposed in the bridge 105. A bottle is placed, manually or automatically, in stoppering position upon the platform 82 and pushed against the respective upper and lower members 87 and 88 of the guide member 86.

The stoppers which, for illustrative purposes herein, will be assumed to be made of polyethylene, move down the chute 27 and are supported by the pair of flanges 102 and 103. As said stoppers approach the bridge, one by one. they move into the central opening (Figure 7), which is defined by the central opening 117 of the tongue of the chute, by the central opening 108 of the stopper guide 106, and by the central opening- 123 in the support member 107. In this location there are no true flanges, or continuations of flanges, corresponding to the flanges 102 and 103, and hence a given stopper is supported solely by having its widened upper end rest on the internally tapered portions 123a (Figures 7 and 9). In this position, the stopper will clear the upper end of the bottle B (Figure 7) which bottle is placed thereunder, either by hand or by continuous conveyor, and is in position for ramming into stoppering position. As soon as a bottle and a stopper are both properly placed,

- the ram 38 is caused to descend by suitable electrical and/or mechanical controls and the stopper is driven downwardly. The material of which the stopper is made is sufliciently resilient that it will compress enough to permit the stopper to be driven past the tapered part 123a and through the part 123 of lessened diameter and the ram is likewise of sufliciently small diameter that it, too, will pass through the portion of lessened diameter 123. Thus, the stopper is driven positively and firmly into the bottle B. The ram then retracts, the bottle B is removed, and another bottle is caused to take its place. As soon as the ram has retracted, the next stopper in line moves into the opening 115 and the cycle is repeated.

In most of the foregoing discussion and in the detailed description, it has been assumed for ease of description that the surface of the stopper by which said stopper is supported constitutes a flange, or other widened portion, of the stopper at its upper end. It will be evident, however, in view of the foregoing, that the surface of the stopper by which it is supported may be located in a variety of other positions, such as intermediate the ends thereof as where a stopper is provided with a flange positioned at some point between its ends or it may even in some cases be at the lower end of the stopper, as where the device is handling a strictly cylindrical plug made of resilient material and the bottom surface of the plug bears against both the flanges 102 and 103 of the chute 27 as well as against the tapered portion 123a of the wall 123. Thus, it will be seen that the present apparatus is adaptable for use with a wide variety of stoppers having a downwardly presented supporting surface and the selection of particular ones of such stoppers for illustrative purposes herein should not be construed as limiting the applicability of the apparatus herein disclosed to use with such stoppers. For clarity in this connection, the term downwardly presenting bearing surface as used hereinafter in the claims shall be understood to mean any such surface by which the stoppers are supported, whether such surface is the underside of the stopper flanges as appearing in the drawings (Figure 7), the underside of a flange located intermediate the ends of the stopper, the conical walls of a downwardly tapered stopper which may be wholly or partially tapered or the bottom surface of a cylindrical plug-type stopper.

Further, the foregoing discussion and drawings have assumed that the upper surface of the stopper is substantially planar. In view of the foregoing, it will be obvious that stoppers having their upper surfaces of many shapes other than planar may be used merely by contouring the bottoms surface of the ram to conform to the upper surface of the stopper. This will make possible the handling of such other stoppers without changing the manner of operation of the apparatus and without otherwise departing from the scope of the invention.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been utilized for illustrative purposes herein, it will be recognized that many variations may be made from the specific form here shown without departing from the basic concept of the invention, and accordingly the hereinafter appended claims should be interpreted as including said variations excepting as some claims may by their own terms expressly require otherwise.

We claim:

1. A device for receiving successively supplied stoppers and holding them in position to permit a ram material and having enlarged upper ends, the combination comprising: a chute having an opening on its under side and flanges extending toward each other on either side of said opening for engaging said enlarged upper ends and supporting the stoppers thereby; a holding device having an entrance opening through the side thereof communicating with said chute, said holding device being cylindrical and having a substantially continuous inner surface except for said entrance opening, said entrance opening being of the same size as the spacing of the side walls of said chute and constituting an extension thereof, said holding device having a central opening. therethrough extending transverse to said entrance opening, said central opening intermediate its axial ends being of a diameter sufiiciently greater than the diameter of the upper ends of said stoppers to permit their free passage thereinto but small enough to guide said stoppers closely to a predetermined center point; said central opening having in its lower portion a diameter sufliciently less than the maximum diameter of said stopper to hold said stopper from falling downwardly out of said central opening, the upper end of saidcentral opening being of a diameter which is not materially greater than the minimum diameter of said central opening for guiding a ram into and downwardly through said central opening.

2. A device for receiving successively supplied stoppers and holding them in position to permit a ram to drivesame into a bottle, said stoppers being made from re-' silient material and having enlarged upper ends, the combination comprising: a chute having an opening on its under side and flanges extending toward each other on either side of said opening for engaging said enlarged upper ends and supporting the stoppers thereby; a holding device having an entrance opening through the side thereof communicating with said chute, said entrance opening being of the same size as the spacing of the side walls of said chute and constituting an extension thereof, said holding device having a central opening therethrough extending transverse to said entrance opening, said central opening intermediate its axial ends being of a diameter sufiiciently greater than the diameter of the upper ends of said stoppers to permit their free passage thereinto but small enough to guide said stoppers closely to a predetermined center point; said central opening having in its lower portion a diameter sufficiently less than the maximum diameter of said stoppers to hold said stoppers from falling downwardly out of said central opening; a downwardly tapered wall connectingsaid upper and lower portions, the upper edge of said tapered wall being aligned with and constituting an extension of the upper surfaces of said flanges; the upper end of said central opening being of a diameter which is not materially greater than the minimum diameter of said central opening for guiding a ram into and downwardly through said central opening.

3. A device for receiving successively supplied stoppers from a feeding source and holding them in position to permit a ram to drive same into a container, said stoppers being made from a resilient material and having enlarged upper ends, the combination comprisingr a feeding chute; a body part of substantially the same depth as said chute and having a U-shaped opening therein and adapted to receive the end of said feeding chute through the open side of said U; a tubular ram guiding member having a sleeve at least partially received within the curved part of said U and concentric therewith and a flange extending over the upper surface of said body part for affixing said sleeve rigidly with respect to said body part; a stopper holding and guiding member positioned below and adjacent said body part, defining a cylindrical opening-concentric with said ram guiding member and being of diameter slightly less than the diameter of the curved portion of said body part, and an opening through to drive same into a bottle, said stoppers being made from resilientone side of said stopper guiding member aligned with said chute for permitting the shanks of stoppers hanging downwardly from said chute to pass into the cylindrical portion of said stopper guiding member, said body part and said stopper guiding member defining a cylindrical passage having a continuous internal surface except for said opening; and means aflixing said stopper guiding member rigidly to said body part.

4. The device defined in claim 3 including also a tapered portion at the upper end of said cylindrical opening for providing a downwardly tapered connecting wall between the curved portion of said U-shaped opening and the walls defining said cylindrical opening.

5. A device for receiving successively supplied stoppers and holding same in position to permit a ram to drive same into a bottle, said stoppers being made of resilient material and having enlarged upper ends, the combination comprising: a chute having an opening on its underside and flanges extending toward each other on either side of said opening for engaging said enlarged upper ends and supporting the stoppers thereby; a substantially cylindrical holding device having an entrance opening through the side thereof communicating with said chute through which said stoppers may pass into said holding device, said entrance opening including an upper portion of the same size as the spacing of the side walls of said chute and constituting an extension thereof and a lower portion of said entrance opening below said flanges being of less than 180 in circumferential extent, said holding device having a continuous inner surface except for said entrancelopening, said holding device having a cen-v tral opening therethrough extending transverse to said entrance opening, said central opening having in its upper portion a diameter sufliciently greater than the upper ends of said stoppers to permit their free passage thereinto but small enough to guide said stoppers closely to 'a predetermined center point; said central opening having in its lower portion a diameter sufliciently less than the maximum diameter of said stoppers to hold said stoppers from falling downwardly out of said central opening; a downwardly tapered wall connecting said upper and lowerportions, the upper end of said central opening of said holding device being concentric with said center point and being of a diameter which is not materially greater than the minimum diameter of said central opening for guiding a ram into and downwardly through said central opening.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS 423,610 Laroe Mar. 18, 1890 1,768,629 Radbruch July 1, 1930 2,006,450 Gaynor July 2, 1935 2,308,188 Madden Jan. 12, 1943 2,360,423 Johnson et al. Oct. 17, 1944 2,803,377 Wilson Aug. 20, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 9,534 France 1853 

